DIRECTORATE OF JUTE DEVELOPMENT

The Directorate of Jute Development (DJD) had its origin in April, 1966 from the erstwhile Indian Central Jute Committee. Since then it had been working as a constituent unit of the Crops Division of the Union Ministry of Agriculture (Department of Agriculture & Co-operation) as a Subordinate Office with its Headquarters in Kolkata. The main objective of the DJD was to bring about a quantitative and qualitative improvement in the production of both Jute and Mesta in the Country. The organization also looked after the development of allied fibre crops like sun hemp, ramie, sisal etc. To achieve the objectives the Directorate had to plan, coordinate and supervise the development and marketing programme of jute and allied fibre crops at the national level. Subsequently, in the year 1995, the Government of India decided to reorganize the Crops Development Directorates having uniform staffing pattern with total staff strength of 31. The reorganization was implemented in June, 1996. There are altogether eight Crops Development Directorates. Along with other Directorates, the Directorate of Jute Development was also provided with staff strength of 23. However, before reorganization of the Crops Development Directorates (CDD s), the Directorate of Jute Development had a sanctioned staff strength of 84. In the wake of reorganization of the Directorates, they have been assigned bi-focal responsibilities, (a) for the respective specified nodal crops of the country as a whole and (b) for all major crops in the states assigned to each of them.

The Directorate of Jute Development has been assigned nine states and one U.T., namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The Directorate of Jute Development, therefore, has to perform activities for the overall development of the nodal crops in the country, i.e., jute/mesta and allied fibre crops and also to perform the monitoring and related activities of other crops in the assigned states. Thus, after reorganization of the CDD s the function and activities have also been reorganized accordingly.